"Still Life," Description paragraph: due 9.10 For this, your first piece of word art in English 71, you will describe your favorite meal.  You will write a paragraph that describes the image of this food, offering your topic sentence and three points of observation. You are going to use your five senses to paint the most wonderful specific details in words, sight, smell, taste, touch, and maybe even hearing.  To make your words as vivid as possible, use strong verbs and colorful nouns.  The kinds of words that appeal to the reader’s senses.  Keep away from the “to be” verbs (be, is, are, was, were, been, being).                                                     Here is an example of description with almost no appeal to the senses: My mother has brown hair. Here is an example rich in description: My mother’s hair reminds me of the soft brown leaves of fall. You may even want to take your essay a step further.  Make believe that you are one of the ingredients in your favorite meal and comment on the other ingredients that surround you.  Tell me what the french fries look like and smell like from the hamburger's point of view!  Or make believe you're a fly, or maybe a person from another country who has never seen this kind of food before.  You get the idea, right?  Download paragraph outline: HERE You must hand in this outline, filled out, with your paragraph. Bonne Chance Mes Amis!

Paragraph 2, Exemplification Do Assignment 1 on 745.  What do you prefer, going to the movies or seeing movies at home?  Make sure you review 180-188 first, especially the four bases for Exemplification on 188.  Will be due on 9.19   Please download your exemplification outline HERE

Four Steps (bases) You Must Have in Your Essay

Unity
Make one point and stick to that point

1. Is there a clear topic sentence?
2. Is all the material on target in support of your topic sentence                                                                                                       

Support
Back up your three supporting points with specific evidence.

1. Do you offer specific evidence to back up your topic sentences (supporting points) of each paragraph?
2. Is there enough specific evidence to convince the reader?

Coherence
If you organize and connect your specific evidence

1. Does your paper have a clear method of organization?
2. Are transitions and other connecting words and connecting sentences used to tie your material together?

Sentence Skills
Write clear, error free sentences.

Checklist of Sentence Skills
Fragments
Run-ons
Correct verb form
Subject-verb agreement
Faulty parallelism
Capital letters used correctly
Punctuation marks where needed
Apostrophe
Quotation marks
Commas
Semicolons
Correct paper format
Needless words eliminated
Spelling errors
Varied sentences
Careful proofreading

Parapgraph 3: Process Analysis:  This essay is written like all other essay, except you are going to explain a process or how to do something. The thesis will relate to or summarize the overall process. The plan of development describes the process in three points broken down into specific details.he conclusion of the essay returns to the significance, importance, relevance, or value of the process. For a process essay to be effective to a general audience, the significance, importance, relevance, or value for the reader cannot be isolated to a single location or community--it must, in some sense, be universal. Types of Process Essays 1. Prescriptive essays are essays which explain how to do something. 2. Descriptive essays describe how something works. Prescriptive Essays (How to Do Something) You will offer a step by step way of doing something. (Functional order) A list of tools or materials may be given before the process is explained. Technical terms may need to be explained when they are introduced. Descriptive essays (How Something is Something Works) Explanations may follow chronological order or may follow some logical order.

Begin Cause and Effect: In one gorgeous paragraph do Writing Assignment #1 on page 684.  Remember to be aware of the four bases checklists. You want to focus on "what" and "why." has your attitude changed or Whywhy did something significant happen.  Your thesis will focus on values learned from the consequences experienced. Due October 22: Note because of the fire this is moved to October 31

Comparison or Contrast: Read CH11: 222-240. For your paper you will compare or contrast one of the following: two Jobs, two instructors, two books, or two friends. Download packet here

Links: help with MLA formats and citings.

	Purdu University's MLA Format Guide  MLA Crib Sheet Capital Community College MLA Guide Timothy Pagaard's MLA format Research Paper Templates MLA Sample Paper MLA, Documenting Web Sources Citation Machine
	Hacker's Documenting Sources: MLA MLA Template for Papers and Annot. Bib.(Spokane Falls CC) Dr. Mary Ellen Guffey's MLA Electronic Format Cornell Annotated Bibliography Lesley U MLA Format for Annot. Bib. CW Post MLA Citation Style OWL Online Research Paper Workshop

Articles are like little adjectives that point to nouns.

________________________________

Nouns: common and proper

Common Nouns can be counted and can have an article in front of them.

Proper Nouns are usually capatilized and can be longer than one word.  Also, the clues that work for common nouns do not work for proper nouns. You can't say the New Yorks, or I'm going to New Yorks.


Personal Pronouns

1) Personal pronouns are defined as words that name persons or things. 
2) Personal pronouns do not follow articles and do not form plurals by adding s as many nouns do.

You will write pron. over personal pronouns.

Verbs
Most verbs show action.

Verbs will fit into the following sentences:
I will___________________.
Yesterday I _____________________.
I have ___________________.

Some verbs don't show action.  These are linking verbs: am, is, are, were, be, being, been, become, seem.  Linking verbs will tell you something about the subject of the sentence.

The chihuahua is yappy.  Is here tells you something about the subject, the "chihuahua."

The subject is your key to finding the verb.  Find out what the sentence says about the subject, and you'll find the verb.

Can you put I, you, he, she, it, or they, in front of the potential verb?  If you can, you have your verb.

A helping verb appears before the main verb.

The teacher and I have worked hard.  A helping verb acts as the buddy of the main verb and gives a sentence its mood, voice, aspect, and tense.  Imagine the main verb as the action center, the Boss Tanaka, of a sentence with the helping verb as Boss Tanaka's dweeby assistant, always tweeking the action.

Some helping verbs can stand alone and act as a main verb.  The linking verbs, such as be, been, being, am, are, is, was, were and helping verbs such as do, does, did, have, had, and has can all stand alone.  Other helping verbs work with a main verb: may, might, must, could, should, would, can, shall, and will.

You would do well to memorize these verb, especially the "to be" verbs:

do	has	may	should	shall	ought
does	have	might	would	will
did	had	must	could	can

to be verb

is

am

are

was

were

be

being

been

Contractions, interrogatives, adjectives, adverbs, and modification:

Contractions

Two parts of speech in one word.

Contractions are built out of pronouns and linking verbs.

You + are = you’re

She + will = she’ll

Interrogative Sentences

An interrogative sentence asks a question.

A sentence that asks a question separates the helping verb from the main verb.

Did Crandall run into the shack?

Did = helping verb

Run = main verb

Adjectives

Many adjectives have antonyms:

Big/small 

Tall/short

Happy/sad

Adjectives will make sense between articles and nouns that are places, persons, or objects.

The tiny lake

The happy boy

A red thermos

Many adjectives are found to the left of nouns.  This is not always the case because they can also be found to the right of linking verbs.

Memorize this: Adjectives will answer one or more of the following questions.

Which_____________?

What kind of_____________?

How many______________?

Adverbs

Adverbs often deal with time.

Adverbs can be moved to another place in the sentence.

Adverbs often end in –ly

Memorize this: Adverbs will answer the following questions:

When?

How?

Where?

To what extent?

Why?

Won’t is a contraction of will not.  Not is an adverb for will.  It answers “how” or "to what extent" you will do something in the contraction “won’t.”

Modification

Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns.

Adverbs modify or describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.

The  road runner ran very quickly.  
In this sentence, very and quickly are both adverbs, with the word very modifying quickly.

Simple Sentences
A simple sentence is built of a single subject-verb unit.

Ron runs.
The chicken flew the coop.
The unicycle has been riden by several sad circus clowns.

Yet, a simple sentence can have more than one subject or verb.

multiple subjects:
Ron and Aryeh run.
The chicken and the rooster flew the coop.
The unicycle and the ostrich have been riden by several sad circus clowns.

multiple verbs:
Ron runs and trips.
The chicken flew and buzzed the coop.
The unicycle has been stolen and riden by several sad circus clowns.

We can even have multiple subjects and verbs:
The unicycle and the pogo stick and the Schwinn Airdyne had been stolen, ridden, and returned by several sad circus clowns.


Compound Sentences
A compound sentence is built out of two or more simple sentences.

These are two complete sentences with a subject and verb hooked up together, and they are usually connected by a comma plus a word to join the two sentences.

The joining words are called coordinating conjunctions because they coordinate the two sentences.

the coordinating conjuncions:
and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet.

Carl opened the door, and the ants made their break to freedom.
Lois loves to go shopping at Sacks, but Superman can never find anything to match his costume there.
Billy loved his asparagus garden, for he was not your average boy.

You see?  Each of the above can be separated into two sentences, but the coordinating conjunction coordinates them together.

Consider the coordinating conjunction as the camp councilor of the word world.  The words and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet, are always trying to hook their sentence campers together.  There will usually be something in common between the first sentence and the second sentence.  In other words, the ideas of both sentences should be related.

Complex sentences:

A complex sentence is made up of a sentence with a complete thought and a statement of an incomplete thought (one that begins with a dependent word).

We are talking about an dependent clause and an independent clause hooked up together.

Remember:  an independent clause tells a complete thought; a dependent clause tells an incomplete thought.

Here's an example of a dependent clause:

When I get those P.F. Flyers...

Do you feel the tension in the above dependent clause.  It's incomplete.  It needs more, more, MORE!

When I get those P.F. Flyers, I'll be the most popular kid in school.

A dependent clause begins with a dependent word.  Let's look at a few.

Dependent words:

After Although As Because Before Even though How

If In order that Since That Unless Until What

When, Where Whether Which While Who Whose

When do we use complex sentences?

When we want to emphasize one idea over another. 

Before I left the house, I fed my pet cockatiel.

What we want to emphasize here is this guy fed Cessna.
I fed my pet cockatiel is a complete thought.

Before I left the house is subordinated to the complete thought.

This technique of giving one thought more emphasis than another is called subordination.

With subordination, the part of the sentence starting with the dependent word or the subordinator will always be the less emphasized part of the sentence.

But if you want to emphasize leaving the house you would write:

After I fed my pet Cockatiel, I left the house.

Do you see how the use of the the word after causes the first half of the sentence to emphasize I left the house?
Read it again.  This is important stuff and will give your writing a tremendous boost.

It depends on what you’re trying to express.  If you want I left the house as the emphasis of the sentence, you would leave that clause independent. 

But, like all the grammar we've learned in this class, it depends on context. 

Check out the context in the following sentence:

After I fed my pet cockatiel, I left the house.  But when I got to my office, I realized I had forgotten my keys for the third time this week.

And in this one:

Before I left the house, I fed my pet cockatiel.  Cockatiels are very picky eaters, and if Cessna does not find a piece of mango in her birdseed, she gets into a huff. 

Can you feel the difference between the above two sentences?  One emphasizes the forgetting of the keys; the other emphasizes the feeding of Cessna, the cockatiel

A very important point to remember is to make the last part of your sentence the emphatic part.  Emphasize your main thought at end of your sentence and pick up that thought in the beginning of your next sentence.

On Subjects and Verbs

Words that come between subjects and verbs should be handled with care.  Take this sentence for example:

The pie for the guests is not as tasty as I thought.

The subject pie is singular, so the verb must be singular as well.  We must use the verb is for the verb and subject to agree.  The words,for the guests, which come between the subject and the verb, do not affect agreement.  Don't be fooled by the object of a preposition--learn what a prepositional phrase is.  By identifying the prepositional phrase, you can avoid subject-verb agreement problems. 

Remember this rule: the subject will never be found in a prepositional phrase.

A Little Bit about Prepositions
Let's see if we can make some sense out of this prepositional phrase business.  Look at the following sentence:

The hamburger with the double order of french fries (is/are) not as tasty as I thought.

The subject hamburger is singular, so the verb   must be singular as well.  We must use the verb is for the verb and subject to agree even though it feels wrong.  The prepsositional phrase, with the double order of french fries, which comes between the subject and the verb, does not affect agreement. 

Prepositional phrases are real trouble makers. Don't be fooled by the object of a preposition--learn what a prepositional phrase is.  By identifying the prepositional phrase, you can avoid subject-verb agreement problems. 

The hamburger with the double order of french fries is not as tasty as I thought.

A preposition is usually a word that will show position or time.  Imagine a bird flying toward a tree.  Anything that bird can do to the tree will be a preposition: in the tree, the tree, aroundthrough the tree, over the tree, under the tree, at the tree, along the tree, from the tree, onto the tree, etc.

As far as time goes: at noon, during the siesta, in the fall, until tomorrow etc.

There are other prepositions that do not fit in these catagories: the words for, of, or like  are examples.  So watch out for these guys, especially the word of.  You might try placing parentheses around the prepositional phrase, reading the sentence  without the phrase.  This way, you'll be sure of the subject.

The taste of peaches has/have always attracted me.
The taste (of peaches) has always attracted me.

A prepositional phrase is a prepostion and the noun that follows it plus any modifiers that might find their way in between.  The noun that follows the preposition is called the "object" of the preposition.

Prepostion + noun
"at home":  at= preposition / home=noun (the word "home" is the object of preposition)

Preposition + modifier(s) + noun
"in the old car":    in=preposition/the= article/old=modifier(adjective)/ car=noun ("car"=object of hte preposition)

Let's repeat the rule: The subject will never be found in a prepositional phrase.

Indefinite Pronouns

Indefinite pronouns always take singular verbs.

one anyone everyone someone

nobody anybody everybody somebody

nothing anything each either neither

Everyone in the line screams (not scream) for their money back.
Nobody, out of thousands of volunteers, twists (not twist) the way she does.
Each of the students has (not have) a beautiful sandwich for lunch.

Verbs must agree with subject no matter their placement in a sentence:

Near my closet hides Chris Ware.
    *here the famous illustrated novelist, Chris Ware, is the subject; the verb he comes after must be singular.

Near my closet hide Chris Ware and Quimby the Mouse.
    *here we use a plural verb because we have a plural subject: Chris Ware and Quimby the Mouse.

Interrogatives are sentences with different verb placement:

Where are those sea anemones?
    *the word anemones is the subject here, so we must use the plural verb are.

Watch your subject-verb placement with sentences that begin with the words there, here, who, which, what, and where.

Compound Subjects

When the word and joins subjects a plural verb should be used:

Chris Ware and Quimby the Mouse are a demanding couple.
Esther and Haman are the life of the party.

When subjects are joined by or or nor or contain either. . .or, neither. . .nor. the verb agrees with the subject closest to the verb:

After the last incident, neither Cha Cha nor her cousin eats BBQ.
Neither the barista nor her helpers make a decent soy mocha latte extra hot no whip.